The Intentional Parents Podcast
Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down: A Balanced Approach of Correction + Connection in Discipline
Do you ever find yourself at a loss when it comes to disciplining your children as they move beyond the toddler years? Do you wish you could instantly curb the pushback, mood swings, and moments of disrespect?
This week, we discuss our Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting resource, which reframes how we respond to our children’s behaviors by emphasizing both correction and connection.
After all, God has hard-wired us all for connection — and this should dictate how we relate to our kids, no matter the circumstances. Looking to Jesus as the model for demonstrating both kindness and firmness, we emphasize not only the importance of each, but also the order in which we respond to outbursts or misbehavior.
We explore the two extremes we often see in parenting: 1) the authoritarian, emotionless “because I said so” style focused solely on squashing the behavior and 2) the overemphasis on emotional validation without any sense of firm boundaries or consequences.
So how do we strike that balance? Tune in to find out!
Scripture Mentioned: Romans 11:22, Romans 2:4, Proverbs 3:11-12, Proverbs 22:6, John 1:14, Psalm 94:19, Proverbs 15:1 + 4, Proverbs 29:17 + Matthew 11:28
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Bottom-Up vs. Top-Down Parenting Resource
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